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| Day 63, 2011/07/03 |
To say I did not sleep was an understatement. Also came down with a bad stomach bug so spent most of the evening on the toilet. In addition, the heat and the mosquitos also mad things unbearable. All that with the thoughts of was I doing the right thing made for a very stressful night! I was up at 5 am and packed ready to ride by 6 am. After a quick breakfast I was on the road by 6:20 am. The first 120km were stunning tarred road, and I managed to knock them off in no time. All was going well. I arrived at the start of the dirt at 8 am sharp, and after dropping the pressure of the tires I set off. The corrugation were a nightmare and because I was in bike conservation mode, i kept speed down. I would have normally done that road at 80 km/h but since I was alone, in the middle of nowhere, I yielded to the side of caution and road at approximate 30 km/h. After the first 30 km, the landscape opened up and flattened out. What a number of fellow drivers had clearly become irritated with the condition of the road and hence, they had taken to driving next to it. There were a number of alternative paths running next to the road itself, creating a spaghetti network. These side roads, where easier to negotiate except for the patches of thick sand which were spotted intermittently. So for anyone on two wheels, this can be challenging. Eventually, i also became very frustrated with the corrugation, and decided to join the others. Progress was going well on the side roads until I hit a thick patch of sand and came tumbling town. In other falls on this trip,i have always had help on hand to assist me in picking up my bike since, it is soo heavily loaded that, I am unable to do this on my own. However, with no one in sight, I was left to my own device and after a couple of unsuccessful attempts, i had to resort to unpacking my bike bike. Once all the heavy items had been removed, like the top box and Jerry can, the bike was reasonably easy to righten. After that fall, I decided it was simply to risky for me to attempt the thick sand on my own and that, i would have to stick to the heavily corrugated road regardless. So my progress was forced to slow. That however, was not the only incident for the day. About 20 km after the first fall, i was driving into a small town. The road was soo badly corrugated that, I decided to keep right and follow the bicycle tracks on the side of the road. The road appeared to be less corrugated on and I rode slowly into town. My attention was momentarily distracted by the sheep herders who were all traditionally dressed. While distracted, I did not see the thick patch of sand in the middle of the road. Needless to say, at the slow speed I was traveling, my front tire simply slid away and i came tumbling down. Since, i was not paying attention, i was unable to kick my legs out as I normally do and hence, my left leg got caught between the bike and the gravel road. The road managed to twist my ankle backwards putting large amounts of stress into my knee. To say it was a little uncomfortable, would be an understatement! At least there where locals around so even with my knee in pain, i was able to get the bike back up without too much effort or pain. At least the damage to my knee was not too bad, and I could still ride without any pain. So at least I was able to complete the remainder of the road to Marsibit without any further incidents. In total, the last 100 km took me in the order of 4 hours, which meant an average of 25 km/h. Not bad going I thought and, except for the two small falls, the bike was still looking strong.
The overnight accommodation was at a place called Nomads. Its option of having safe parking, together with a restaurant, warm showers and DSTV for the price of R100 per night meant that it was a no brainer!
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